A former McKinsey consultant-turned New York Times columnist, Anand Giridharadas is now a bestselling author. His recent book, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, torches the privileged circles he has moved in much of his adult life, and is rooted in insider knowledge.

He thinks ideas conferences like Aspen would do well to spend its time listening to more of society's losers, and fewer winners. "The powerful are very good at disseminating their own bullshit," he says. "They don't need the intellectual reputation laundering of ideas festivals to make their heavily marketed bullshit smell even sweeter."

"I sincerely believe," he says, "that had more of the institutions of this country - and particularly those involved in thinking and ideas, not just conferences but all kinds of things - been more skeptical of elite fantasies and more mindful of what was actually going on in other people's lives in this country, I think it's very possible we wouldn't have orange Mussolini in the White House."

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